608 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



Italy 1,500; Austria-Hungary, 1,200 ; Asia, 

 exclusive of Japan, 1,000 ; Spain 850 ; Russia, 

 800 ; Australia, 800 ; Greece, 600 ; Switzer- 

 land, 450 ; Holland, 300 ; Belgium, 300 ; all 

 others, 1,000. Of these more than half are 

 printed in the English language. 



The Sacred Number. Seven was fre- 

 quently used as a mystical and symbolical 

 number in the Bible, as well as among the 

 principal nations of antiquity, the Persians, 

 Indians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. 

 The origin is doubtless astronomical, or rather 

 astrological, viz., the observation of the seven 

 planets and the phases of the moon, changing 

 every seventh day. As instances of this num- 

 ber in the Old Testament, we find the Creation 

 completed within seven days, whereof the 

 seventh was a day of rest kept sacred. Every 

 seventh year was sabbatical, and the seven 

 times seventh year ushered in the jubilee year. 

 The three Regalim, or Pilgrim festivals (Pass- 

 over, Festival of Weeks, and Tabernacles), 

 lasted seven days, and between the first and 

 second of these feasts were counted seven 

 weeks. The first day of the seventh month 

 was a "Holy Convocation." The Levitical 

 purifications lasted seven days, and the same 

 space of time was allotted to the celebration of 

 weddings and the mourning for the dead. In 

 innumerable instances in the Old Testament 

 and later Jewish writings the number is used 

 as a kind of round number. In the Apocalypse 

 we have the churches, candlesticks, seals, stars, 

 trumpets, spirits, all to the number of seven, 

 and the seven horns and seven eyes of the 

 Lamb. The same number appears again, 

 either divided into half (3 years, Rev. xiii. 

 5 ; xi. 3 ; xii. 6, etc.), or multiplied by ten 

 seventy Israelites go to Egypt, the exile lasts 

 seventy years, there are seventy elders, and at 

 a later period there are supposed to be seventy 

 languages and seventy nations upon earth. 

 To go back to the earlier documents, we find 

 in a similar way the dove sent out the second 

 time seven days after her first mission, Pha- 

 raoh's dream shows him twice seven kine, 

 twice seven ears of corn, etc. 



The Seven Churches of Rev. i.-iii. are 

 Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, 

 Philadelphia,and Laodicea. The Seven Deadly 

 Sins are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, glut- 

 tony, envy, and sloth. The Seven Principal 

 Virtues are faith, hope, charity, prudence, 



temperance, chastity, and fortitude The 



Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost are wisdom, 

 understanding, counsel, ghostly strength or 

 fortitude, knowledge, godliness, and the fear 

 of the Lord. 



Among the Greeks the seven was sacred to 

 Apollo and to Dionysus, who, according to 



Orphic legends, was torn into seven pieces ; 

 and it was particularly sacred in Euboea, where 

 the number was found to pervade, as it were, 

 almost every sacred, private, or domestic rela- 

 tion. On the many ancient speculations which 

 connected the number seven with the human 

 body and the phases of its gradual develop- 

 ment and formation, its critical periods of 

 sicknesses, partly still extant as supersti- 

 tious notions we cannot here dwell. The 

 Pythagoreans made much of this number, 

 giving it the name of Athene, Hermes, 

 Hephaistos, Heracles, the Virgin unbegotten 

 and unbegetting (/. e., not to be obtained by 

 multiplication), Dionysus, Rex, etc. Many 

 usages show the importance attached to this 

 number in the eyes not only of ancient but 

 even of our own times, and it is hardly neces- 

 sary to add that the same recurrence is found 

 in the folklore of every race. 



Hippocrates (B. C. 460-357) divided the life 

 of man into seven ages, a division adopted by 

 Shakespeare. 



The Egyptian priests enjoined rest on the 

 seventh day, because it was held to be a dies 

 infaustus. In Egyptian astronomy there were 

 seven planets, and hence seven days in the 

 week, each day ruled by its own special planet. 

 The people of Peru had also a seven-day week. 



The Persians and Mexicans have a tradition 

 of a flood from which seven persons saved 

 themselves in a cave, and by whom the world 

 was subsequently repeopled. 



The seven Champions of Christendom are 

 St. George for England, St. Andrew for Scot- 

 land, St. Patrick for Ireland, St. David for 

 Wales, St. Denis for France, St. James for 

 Spain, St. Anthony for Italy. 



Maelstrom, The, which means, literally, 

 "grinding stream," is situated on the Nor- 

 wegian coast, southwest of the Loffoden Isles, 

 and is the most remarkable whirlpool in the 

 world. It runs between the island of Mos- 

 kenes and a large solitary rock in the middle of 

 the straits. The strong currents, rushing be- 

 tween the Great West Fjord and the outer 

 ocean, through the- channels of the Loffoden 

 Isles, produce a number of whirlpools, of 

 which the maelstrom is by far the most dan- 

 gerous. During severe storms from the west, 

 for instance, the current runs continually to 

 the east at the rate of six knots an hour, with- 

 out changing its direction for rising or falling 

 tide, and the stream will boil and eddy in 

 such mighty whirls that the largest steamer 

 could hardly contend successfully with the 

 waters. The depth of the whirlpool is only 20 

 fathoms, but just outside the straits sound- 

 ings reach from 100 to 200 fathoms. The 

 great danger to vessels is of course not of 



